Published: Friday, July 5, 2013 at 9:47 p.m.

Last Modified: Friday, July 5, 2013 at 9:47 p.m.

Photographer David Douglas Duncan captured this iconic photo during the Korean War of Beauford Haynie (right), who today makes his home at Lake Shore Commons in Wilmington. Contributed photo

They were in the Pusan Perimeter in South Korea when the North Koreans began firing on a tank nearby.

"It was a little too crowded for me," Haynie recalled recently at Lake Shore Commons, where he lives today. So they took off running.

Just as they sped past the body of a dead North Korean soldier, Haynie looked up as a photographer snapped his picture.

"What the hell's he doing here?" he thought fleetingly.

The photographer was David Douglas Duncan and the photograph has become one of the iconic images of the Korean War. It's on the cover of Duncan's 1990 book, "This Is War! A Photo-Narrative of the Korean War"

July 27 will mark the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting during the Korean War. Technically the war never ended, but remains a tense standoff between North and South Korea.

North Korea's bellicose young leader, Kim Jung Un, guarantees that the U.S. won't forget about his country.

But Korean War veterans often feel slighted by history. Korea is called "The Forgotten War."

At least two Marine Corp veterans in the Wilmington area vividly recall one of the fiercest battles of that war, the fight in present-day North Korea at the Chosin Reservoir.

As members of the "Chosin Few," neither Haynie nor Harry Jablonski of Shallotte will ever forget one of the coldest events in the Cold War.

As temperatures plunged to 35 or 40 degrees below zero, United Nations troops were vastly outnumbered. Estimates vary widely, but Harold Davis, a Korean War veteran from Wilmington who has researched the war and its casualties, believes there were about 25,000 U.N. troops at Chosin vs. 120,000 Chinese troops.

Haynie fought in the Pusan Perimeter in the summer of 1950, with United Nations troops that had been pushed down to the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula by the advancing North Korean army.

Both he and Jablonski participated in the Inchon landing in September as U.N. forces landed on the west coast and eventually retook the city of Seoul.

And both were transported by sea to Wonsan, on the east coast in present-day North Korea, and easily advanced 60 miles north to the Chosin Reservoir.

That was when Haynie's men noticed something different about the dead soldiers they were encountering.

The Chinese, alarmed at the collapse of the formerly successful North Korean forces, sent Chinese army troops over the border.

Jablonski's unit was scouting high ground when they arrived at Chosin when they saw a daunting sight.

"We looked down in the valley and there were Chinese swarming all over down there," he said.

"We're in for it now," he told his colonel.

During subsequent movements, his unit volunteered to be out front, the point position, mainly so they could keep moving instead of having to stop and wait in an accordion-like march.

"If you stopped, you would freeze," he said.

At one point, he saw Chinese machine gun nests 100 yards away.

"They could have killed us at any time," he said. But the Chinese held their fire, waiting for the main body of the column to come by.

The Marines had air superiority. They called in positions and Marine F4 Corsairs would swoop in to attack the enemy.

"We'd sit back and watch the show," he recalled.

Jablonski said it was an error to take one man from each two-man pup tent to keep watch. Two men could have kept each other warmer.

He was lying alone when snow covered the tent. Marines found steam coming out of a small hole caused by his breath.

"They found me and dug me out," he said. He couldn't move.

"I was totally frozen. My heartbeat was slow," he said. "It wouldn't have taken half an hour before I was dead."

Jablonski was near a makeshift airfield at Hagaru-ri when he was shot in the leg.

He spent two months recovering in Japan before returning to the war.

Meanwhile Haynie, leading three other men in his fire team including Dobbs, tried to get some sleep before an expected action the next day.

The little unit bedded down outdoors together, but the cold seeped from the ground up through Haynie's poncho, shelter, blanket and sleeping bag.

"It felt like ice fingers around my spine," he said.

So he got up and began stamping his feet, trying to warm up.

Suddenly a mortar shell landed where he'd been lying moments before. All of his men were killed.

Haynie was later evacuated because of frostbite.

"My toes turned black," he said.

The story of Chosin is the story of U.N. forces, many of them U.S. Marines, overwhelmed by the huge Chinese army and fighting their way out. Maj. Gen. Oliver P. Smith, leading the 1st Marine Division, was famously quoted as saying, "We're not retreating, we're just advancing in a different direction!"

These two Marines, and other service members who fought in Korea, are angry that their conflict receives relatively little attention. Aside from "M*A*S*H" – a Vietnam-era show – and a handful of movies like the 1959 classic "Pork Chop Hill," the Korean War didn't resonate in popular culture.

"I get so mad," Haynie said. "They talk about World War I, World War II, Vietnam and Desert Storm, and don't mention Korea.

"I get so mad I could choke up," he said. "We were there."

Column idea? Contact Si Cantwell at 343-2364 or Si.Cantwell@StarNewsOnline.com, or follow him on Twitter.com: @SiCantwell.

<p>Sometime in July 1950, Beauford Haynie was running from heavy fire by North Korean forces, followed by Robert Lee Dobbs of Kansas City.</p><p>They were in the Pusan Perimeter in South Korea when the North Koreans began firing on a tank nearby.</p><p>"It was a little too crowded for me," Haynie recalled recently at Lake Shore Commons, where he lives today. So they took off running.</p><p>Just as they sped past the body of a dead North Korean soldier, Haynie looked up as a photographer snapped his picture.</p><p>"What the hell's he doing here?" he thought fleetingly.</p><p>The photographer was David Douglas Duncan and the photograph has become one of the iconic images of the Korean War. It's on the cover of Duncan's 1990 book, "This Is War! A Photo-Narrative of the Korean War"</p><p>July 27 will mark the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting during the Korean War. Technically the war never ended, but remains a tense standoff between North and South Korea.</p><p>North Korea's bellicose young leader, Kim Jung Un, guarantees that the U.S. won't forget about his country.</p><p>But Korean War veterans often feel slighted by history. Korea is called "The Forgotten War."</p><p>At least two Marine Corp veterans in the Wilmington area vividly recall one of the fiercest battles of that war, the fight in present-day North Korea at the Chosin Reservoir.</p><p>As members of the "Chosin Few," neither Haynie nor Harry Jablonski of Shallotte will ever forget one of the coldest events in the Cold War.</p><p>As temperatures plunged to 35 or 40 degrees below zero, United Nations troops were vastly outnumbered. Estimates vary widely, but Harold Davis, a Korean War veteran from Wilmington who has researched the war and its casualties, believes there were about 25,000 U.N. troops at Chosin vs. 120,000 Chinese troops.</p><p>Haynie fought in the Pusan Perimeter in the summer of 1950, with United Nations troops that had been pushed down to the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula by the advancing North Korean army.</p><p>Both he and Jablonski participated in the Inchon landing in September as U.N. forces landed on the west coast and eventually retook the city of Seoul.</p><p>And both were transported by sea to Wonsan, on the east coast in present-day North Korea, and easily advanced 60 miles north to the Chosin Reservoir.</p><p>That was when Haynie's men noticed something different about the dead soldiers they were encountering.</p><p>"The Koreans wore green uniforms. We were running into brown uniforms. We said, 'Hey, something's wrong here,'?" Haynie said.</p><p>The Chinese, alarmed at the collapse of the formerly successful North Korean forces, sent Chinese army troops over the border.</p><p>Jablonski's unit was scouting high ground when they arrived at Chosin when they saw a daunting sight.</p><p>"We looked down in the valley and there were Chinese swarming all over down there," he said.</p><p>"We're in for it now," he told his colonel.</p><p>During subsequent movements, his unit volunteered to be out front, the point position, mainly so they could keep moving instead of having to stop and wait in an accordion-like march.</p><p>"If you stopped, you would freeze," he said.</p><p>At one point, he saw Chinese machine gun nests 100 yards away.</p><p>"They could have killed us at any time," he said. But the Chinese held their fire, waiting for the main body of the column to come by.</p><p>The Marines had air superiority. They called in positions and Marine F4 Corsairs would swoop in to attack the enemy.</p><p>"We'd sit back and watch the show," he recalled.</p><p>Jablonski said it was an error to take one man from each two-man pup tent to keep watch. Two men could have kept each other warmer.</p><p>He was lying alone when snow covered the tent. Marines found steam coming out of a small hole caused by his breath.</p><p>"They found me and dug me out," he said. He couldn't move.</p><p>"I was totally frozen. My heartbeat was slow," he said. "It wouldn't have taken half an hour before I was dead."</p><p>Jablonski was near a makeshift airfield at Hagaru-ri when he was shot in the leg.</p><p>He spent two months recovering in Japan before returning to the war.</p><p>Meanwhile Haynie, leading three other men in his fire team including Dobbs, tried to get some sleep before an expected action the next day.</p><p>The little unit bedded down outdoors together, but the cold seeped from the ground up through Haynie's poncho, shelter, blanket and sleeping bag.</p><p>"It felt like ice fingers around my spine," he said.</p><p>So he got up and began stamping his feet, trying to warm up.</p><p>Suddenly a mortar shell landed where he'd been lying moments before. All of his men were killed.</p><p>Haynie was later evacuated because of frostbite.</p><p>"My toes turned black," he said.</p><p>The story of Chosin is the story of U.N. forces, many of them U.S. Marines, overwhelmed by the huge Chinese army and fighting their way out. Maj. Gen. Oliver P. Smith, leading the 1st Marine Division, was famously quoted as saying, "We're not retreating, we're just advancing in a different direction!"</p><p>These two Marines, and other service members who fought in Korea, are angry that their conflict receives relatively little attention. Aside from "M*A*S*H" – a Vietnam-era show – and a handful of movies like the 1959 classic "Pork Chop Hill," the Korean War didn't resonate in popular culture.</p><p>"I get so mad," Haynie said. "They talk about World War I, World War II, Vietnam and Desert Storm, and don't mention Korea.</p><p>"I get so mad I could choke up," he said. "We were there."</p><p><i>Column idea? Contact <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/topic22"><b>Si Cantwell</b></a> at 343-2364 or Si.Cantwell@StarNewsOnline.com, or follow him on <a href="http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/news41"><b>Twitter</b></a>.com: @SiCantwell.</i></p>